NEWS

Four Americans into Party Rock Open quarterfinals

LAS VEGAS – Americans Jessica Pegula, Shelby Rogers, Mallory Burdette and Lauren Davis all won second-round singles matches on Day 3 of main-draw action at the Party Rock Open, a women’s $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event sponsored by Redfoo of the hit group LMFAO and being played at the Darling Tennis Center.

The No. 2-seeded Davis from Cleveland took out local favorite and wild card Asia Muhammad of Las Vegas on Thursday night, 6-3, 6-3, in the night match with Redfoo looking on.

The 18-year-old Davis said she tried to use the crowd cheering for her opponent to her advantage. "I can see it getting kind of annoying, but I think I do a good job of not letting outside things bother me," Davis said. "You really can’t benefit from getting mad, so I don’t get mad. I tried to win every single point just so they would be quiet. So you can say I kind of tried to use it to my advantage."

Another 18-year-old, Pegula, had the easiest time getting to the quarterfinals, as she beat Petra Rampre of Slovenia, 6-1, 6-3. On Tuesday night, Rampre took out top-seeded Edina Gallovits-Hall, 6-1, 6-1.

Rogers, of Charleston, S.C., beat Stephanie Dubois of Canada, 7-6 (3) 6-4, and Burdette won her second straight match as a professional, as the No. 7 seed took out fellow American Madison Brengle, 6-3, 6-3.

The sister vs. sister match never got going Thursday, as Anastasia Rodionova of Australia beat her sister Arina Rodionova of Russia, who retired down 5-2.

But later in the day, Arina felt well enough to play doubles with her sister, as the top-seeded duo beat Maria Abramovic of Croatia and Amra Sadikovic of Switzerland, 6-3, 7-6 (2), to advance to the doubles semis on Friday.

Log onto www.RadioTennis.com to hear Ken Thomas do his live Internet stream at the Party Rock Open through Sunday.